This application claims the priority of German patent document 199 41 711.3, filed Sep. 2, 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a fuel cell arrangement having a fuel cell that is cooled by a flow of a cooling medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,671 discloses a fuel cell which is cooled by air. The thermal integration of such a fuel cell in a fuel cell system, however, requires high expenditures because many components must be maintained very precisely at different temperature levels, and with different cooling or heating requirements must be taken into account.
It is an object of the invention to provide a fuel cell section system which simplifies the thermal integration of the fuel cell system.
This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the fuel cell arrangement according to the invention, which includes a common delivery device for introducing cooling medium into the fuel cell and a condenser for the condensation of water from outgoing cathode air.
The advantages of this arrangement are that, on the one hand, it permits a very compact construction because the components can be coupled directly; constructional volume is minimized; and pressure losses of the cooling medium are reduced by means of short cooling routes. On the other hand, for cooling the components, only one delivery device for the cooling medium is required, so that the number of system components can be reduced.
Additional advantages and further developments of the invention are indicated in the description and attached drawing.
It is understood that the above-mentioned characteristics and those which will be explained in the following can be used not only in the described combination but also in other combinations or alone, without leaving the scope of the present invention.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.